updated 04:45 pm EST, Mon January 10, 2011

Renesas to ship 16-megapixel sensor in March

Japan's Renesas, which makes camera chips and merged with NEC, has now said it will soon produce a sensor that will allow for cell phones with 16-megapixel cameras. The CE150 sensor will offer a significant improvement over currently available cameras in smartphones, such as the 12.1-megapixel one in the Nokia N8 and some 13-megapixel cameras from Japanese makers. The chip will also allow continuous shooting up to five times faster than the currently available camera phones as well.

The sensor will endow cameras with 1080p shooting and playback, though, the company's chips were able to do this for awhile now. Which phone makers will opt to use Renesas' newest hasn't been revealed, and the chip will begin to be mass-produced in March. Sample units are now shipping for $48. [viaCrunchGear]

really?

OK, this is just completely unnecessary. It's common knowledge amongst most professional photographers that anything over 12MP is wasteful, unless you are printing very large professional prints or doing 100% crops, in either case you probably aren't using a phone to do your shooting but rather a $1500 or better DSLR. Not to mention the added noise that comes with larger megapixels.